Sunday, April 5, 2015

Parking on Mars by Robin Janney

As the car pulled into the store parking lot, I rolled my eyes at how the other cars were parked. My husband wisely put a whole parking spot between our car and the next.

'It doesn't matter where you go,' I said, gathering my purse in preparation. 'Nobody knows how to part.'

'I know, right?' replied hubby, shutting the car off and pocketing the key.

'Any town, any parking lot, any state, it's all the same' Shutting the car door behind me, I started for the front of the store.

'Any planet,' he chimed in with agreement.

'Yeah, any planet.' Pausing, I looked at the row of unevenly parked cars. One was parked too much to the driver's side, another too far to the passenger side. 'Look, we could have parked in that gap!'

He didn't acknowledge my rant. Instead he said, 'Except maybe Mars. I bet they know how to park on Mars.'

'Don't tease me that way,' I said, petulant. 'If they know how to park on Mars, I'll move!'

He laughed, a pleasant sound in the chilly afternoon air. 'Do you think they'd even let us drive? I mean, we don't know how to park.'

I frowned, fixing him with the evil eye as he shattered my fantasy of properly parked cars. 'You could be right,' I admitted grudgingly. 'Those Martians are sticklers. But maybe they'd have chauffeurs for us then, or better yet...automated cars!'

'Or robot drivers.'

'Exactly! Imagine how nice that would be! To just kick back and relax and not have to worry about crazy drivers!'

'Until something malfunctioned or their computer crashed,' he said, coming by my side to put an arm around me. 'Or someone programmed them to go haywire.'

I scowled. 'I'd take that chance. You just like ruining my imaginations, don't you?'

He laughed again, pulling me alongside him as we began to walk to the store. 'No, I just like the look on your face.'

I stuck my tongue out at him. He pinched my backside.

'Hey!' I giggled.

'Hey, hey!!' He waggled his eyebrows at me and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

We went about our business, the conversation slipping from my mind. We shopped, we talked, we enjoyed each other's company.

Until that night, when I crawled into bed next to. I sighed and snuggled close.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

'I never got my blog post written for this week. And I don't know what to write about. No, that's not true. There's a lot I could write about, but it's bound to get me into trouble with someone in my family.'

He considered this for a short moment. 'Write about parking on Mars.'

I laughed, but then said, 'Why not? That's a great idea.'

So I did, even though it's uber late. (Technically this is last weeks post!) I hope you enjoyed my fictionalized account of an actual conversation between Mr. Janney and I. ;)